Remembering Dr Beryl Gilroy

Community Association for West Hampstead

CAWH Talk by Darla Gilroy, telling a compelling story of her mother - Beryl Gilroy - 1st Black Headteacher at West Hampstead Primary School.

In this illustrated talk, Darla Jane Gilroy, tells the story of her mother, Beryl Gilroy, pioneering teacher, writer, psychotherapist and Camden’s first black headteacher, drawing on her unique memoir, “Black Teacher”.Described as “one of Britain’s most significant post-war Caribbean migrants” Gilroy was born in Guyana in 1924, arriving in England in 1952, a gifted, experienced, and highly qualified teacher but, due to the deep-rooted racism of the time, denied opportunities to teach. She eventually secured a teaching post in a school in East London in 1954. In the 1960s she began teaching within Camden at Tufnell Park School and became deputy head of Motem School in 1968. The following year, she became headteacher of Beckford School, in West Hampstead becoming the first black headteacher to be appointed in Camden. With a degree in child psychology and as a qualified Froebel teacher, Gilroy was decades ahead of her time in understanding the needs of children and made a significant contribution to British education, inspiring generations of children to be unaccepting of the limits placed on them by post war British society. In 1976 she published “Black Teacher” the only memoir written by a black woman over this period, telling the humorous, poignant, and inspiring story of her struggle against those who sought to diminish her through the lens of racism. Darla Jane Gilroy is Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Fashion Enterprise at Central Saint Martins UAL.

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Remembering Dr Beryl Gilroy

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Remembering Dr Beryl Gilroy

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